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Asia Pacific policewomen compare progress

MARK COLVIN: Slowly but surely the number of police women around the world is increasing, and more of them are in senior jobs.

In Australia and New Zealand about 27 per cent of police are women.

But there's still a long way to go in countries such as Pakistan, where the number of women officers has only just passed the 1 per cent mark.

Policewomen from around the Asia Pacific region are discussing their experiences and expectations at a conference underway in South Australia.

Brendan Trembath reports from Adelaide.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: In Pakistan's male dominated police hierarchy Helena Saeed stands out, not only because of her gender but her rank.

HELENA SAEED: I'm just a grade away from becoming chief of police in Pakistan. And I currently head the Gender Crime Centre at the federal level.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: She says being the deputy inspector general of Pakistan's National Police Bureau is a tough job but she's up to it.

HELENA SAEED: I'm not afraid of sitting in a room full of 100 men, probably don't even consider them as such. I have no problems with that.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: Overall, when you look at female representation in the police force in Pakistan, what is it at the moment?

HELENA SAEED: It is, we've just struck the 1 per cent mark.

BRENDAN TREMABTH: I understand in Pakistan you have some female only police stations. How do those work?

HELENA SAEED: You see our social fabric is such we have 20 police stations in Pakistan, and because women from the rural areas, even from the urban area, don't want to go to, they don't feel comfortable in an all male set up, so they will prefer to go to a female police station. They will feel more comfortable there.

So I think, I personally feel that because we are almost half of the population, women constitute half of the population, so we probably can't do without the women police stations.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: Germany's foreign office has been funding a program to increase the numbers of police women in Pakistan.

Dr Khola Iram, an adviser, says they're making progress.

KHOLA IRAM: When we started this project in 2009 it was only 0.86 per cent. I don't claim that we managed to increase it up to 1 per cent, but we did a lot of hard work. We had to talk to all the police chiefs to increase their quota. And we have succeeded in increasing their quota, and we are waiting for the new recruitments to take place.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: How were these police chiefs convinced to have more women?

KHOLA IRAM: We still face a lot of resistance, it's still very difficult, but they do need women.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: In Australia and New Zealand that aim is well advanced.

Assistant commissioner Carlene York is the president of the Australasian Council of Women and Policing.

CARLENE YORK: Across Australia and New Zealand, we're sitting at about 27 per cent. So we did some comparisons this morning - 15 years ago we were about 15 per cent. So we've come a long way in those 15 years, and still a long way to go.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: When Carlene York joined the New South Wales Police in the 1980s women accounted for about 10 per cent of the force.

CARLENE YORK: There was six girls out of 110 males in my class. Very different, very limited career opportunities and what you could do, and no maternity leave. And, you know, it wasn't long before I started that if you got married you had to leave, and then once you had children you had to leave. So things have changed immensely over those 20 or 30 years.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: Assistant commissioner York's first role was policing in Sydney's gritty Kings Cross-Darlinghurst area. She later worked as a police prosecutor, and headed the forensic services group and the state's northern police region.

Now she's in charge of human resources. Assistant commissioner York is telling police women from elsewhere in the region that there is light at the end of the tunnel.